Studies on vanadium catalyzed direct hydroxylation of aromatic hydrocarbons using hydrogen peroxide as oxidant

Synthesis of 2,6-Dimethoxy-p-aminophenol from Hardwood Lignin

Although the multiple functional groups in biomass offer notable chances for producing high-value chemicals, most of the current studies focused on the (deep) defunctionalization of biomass and its derivates. Herein, we present a catalytic approach to valorize birch wood lignin with maintaining the methoxy and hydroxy groups in the final product (i. e., 2,6-dimethoxy-p-aminophenol), which has applications in different sectors such as pharmaceuticals. The proved approach involves four steps with a high yield (19.8 wt % on the basis of used lignin) to 2,6-dimethoxy-p-aminophenol. The native lignin in birch wood was first converted using alkaline aerobic oxidation in the presence of copper ions toward high-yield syringaldehyde, which was then selectively oxidized toward 2,6-dimethoxy-1,4-benzoquinone using H2 O2 and V2 O5 . Oximation of 2,6-dimethoxy-1,4-benzoquinone can selectively form 2,6-dimethoxy-1,4-benzoquinone-4-oxime, which can be quantitatively hydrogenated toward 2,6-dimethoxy-p-aminophenol. This work highlights the unique potential of biomass and its derivates for the sustainable production of high-value products with exploring the value of inherent functional groups.

Enhanced anisole hydroxylation over a hierarchical micro/mesoporous TS-1 catalyst

Micro/mesoporous DTS-1 showed enhanced catalytic activity for anisole hydroxylation showing 54% conversion with 55% selectivity towards p-methoxyphenol.

Hydroxylation of benzene to phenol over heteropoly acid H5PMo10V2O40 supported on amine-functionalized MCM-41

Supported catalysts with Keggin type heteropoly acids (H5PMo10V2O40) loaded onto amine-functionalized MCM-41 for the catalytic hydroxylation of benzene to phenol with H2O2 were prepared by a wet impregnation method. The effects of the preparation conditions on the properties and activity of the supported catalysts were fully investigated. The results showed that the catalyst retained the mesoporous structure of MCM-41 and H5PMo10V2O40 was dispersed uniformly on the surface of the amine-functionalized MCM-41. Meanwhile, the reusability and catalytic performance of the catalyst were affected by two key factors, i.e., the interaction between the heteropoly acid and the surface of MCM-41, and the hydrophobicity of the catalyst since they decide the leaching of H5PMo10V2O40 and the adsorption of benzene. The catalyst with H5PMo10V2O40 loaded onto amine-functionalized MCM-41, which was prepared using ethanol as the solvent, exhibited the highest phenol yield (20.4%), a turnover frequency value of 20.3 h-1 and good reusability. We believe this work offers an effective and facile strategy for the preparation of a new catalyst for hydroxylation of benzene to phenol.

Catalytic Applications of Vanadium: A Mechanistic Perspective

The chemistry of vanadium has seen remarkable activity in the past 50 years. In the present review, reactions catalyzed by homogeneous and supported vanadium complexes from 2008 to 2018 are summarized and discussed. Particular attention is given to mechanistic and kinetics studies of vanadium-catalyzed reactions including oxidations of alkanes, alkenes, arenes, alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, and sulfur species, as well as oxidative C-C and C-O bond cleavage, carbon-carbon bond formation, deoxydehydration, haloperoxidase, cyanation, hydrogenation, dehydrogenation, ring-opening metathesis polymerization, and oxo/imido heterometathesis. Additionally, insights into heterogeneous vanadium catalysis are provided when parallels can be drawn from the homogeneous literature.

Direct synthesis of phenol by novel [FeFe]-hydrogenase model complexes as catalysts of benzene hydroxylation with H2O2

Compared the catalytic performance of complexes 1–3, the complex 2 has the highest phenol yield (24.6%) and phenol selectivity (92%), which has the highest electron densities of the catalytically active sites.